Kane says money not there for light rail

LG candidate favors fixing MARC, Metro service first

Anthony Head, a former employee of Kane Co. (above), filed a complaint in 2005 under the False Claims Act, alleging that the Elkridge company paid workers less than what was federally required under certain contracts, submitted false documents saying it was in compliance and double-billed the government for some work.

Mary D. Kane has no qualms about backing former Gov. Robert L Ehrlich Jr. when it comes to the Purple Line.

"As [former] Governor Ehrlich said  and I support him wholeheartedly  you've got to be honest with everyone. We cannot afford a Purple Line," Kane, Ehrlich's running mate, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We need to look at things we can do. And a rapid bus transit system is something we can do."

That's counter to Gov. Martin O'Malley's endorsement of a light rail along the proposed 16-mile route from Bethesda to New Carrollton, at a cost of $1.8 billion.

It also could put the Ehrlich-Kane ticket at odds with business leaders in the Washington suburbs, a constituency to whom political observers believed Kane would appeal and for whom the light-rail project is a top priority.

The Ehrlich-Kane position on transit reflects a focus on fiscal responsibility  business interests be damned, said Christopher B. Summers, founder and president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute in Rockville, where Ehrlich is director emeritus.

"You do have those in the business community looking out for their own interests in terms of these projects," Summers said. "I think [former] Governor Ehrlich is spot-on in looking out for the budget interests and what it means going out in the future. Transit is obviously a concern."

Asked about the Red Line in Baltimore and the Corridor Cities Transitway, a light rail or rapid bus line connecting the Shady Grove Metro station to Clarksburg, Kane said Maryland needs to "look at things we can [do]."

In the meantime, the focus should be elsewhere, she said.

The state needs to "concentrate on fixing what's broken  the MARC train, the Metro Red Line from D.C.," Kane said. "I think we need to have a better working relationship with the Metro board in the region."

Comments such as Ehrlich's and Kane's "obviously indicate that the candidates are thinking about transportation, which is a good sign," said Richard N. Parsons, chairman of the Montgomery Business PAC and a former president and CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

But candidates "have to move forward into a discussion of how we pay for these," he said.

The Corridor Cities Transitway is "absolutely critical to the state's number 1 job creation engine, which is the [Interstate] 270 corridor," Parsons said.

Instead of investing in transit, the state  under both Ehrlich and O'Malley repeatedly has raided its Transportation Trust Fund to fill other gaps in the budget, he said.

Donald C. Fry, the president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, agreed.

"You've got to find ways to look for alternatives to move forward," he said. That includes being able to ante up state dollars when the federal government comes calling with transportation funding.

"If you're not ready to match them, there are plenty of projects across the country that will leap over you," Fry said.

The Red Line, a 14-mile east-west connector through downtown Baltimore, is "the top transportation priority" for Baltimore businesses, he said. "The Red Line is our next big step toward transit, so it's imperative that the Red Line gets built."

Differences about transit aside, business leaders and political observers of all stripes have given Ehrlich high marks for picking Kane, who served as secretary of state from August 2005 through January 2007.

During that time, she headed Ehrlich's Subcabinet for International Affairs, working with the Department of Business and Economic Development on partnerships with academic institutions and agreements with countries such as China, Mexico and Poland.

Kane's background also includes sitting in on what she called "strategic steering meetings" for Kane Co., the office moving firm owned by her husband, former state GOP chairman John M. Kane.

Since 2008, she has been director of special projects for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a position she said has allowed her to travel the country and see "what's going well, what's not going well" with the economy.

Through the National Chamber Foundation, a nonprofit chamber affiliate whose leadership includes former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Kane has talked to students around the country about the importance of becoming entrepreneurs and supporting free enterprise.

She also encourages companies to hire veterans through the chamber's military and veterans initiative.

She did not, she said, have a role in a chamber report issued in May  and mentioned by O'Malley (D) during an appearance on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program Thursday  that named Maryland one of the top states for job creation.

"Read the report, because a lot of the numbers encompassed Governor Ehrlich's time in office," Kane said.